In a letter to the German parliament in Berlin, 35 chief
executive officers including DAX-listed Deutsche Bank AG’s
Juergen Fitschen, Daimler AG’s Dieter Zetsche and Allianz SE’s
Michael Diekmann asked lawmakers to drop their opposition to the
convention. Members of the chamber have balked at signing up to
the charter since 2003 because they say it might, among other
things, curtail their freedom to meet lobbyists.

“The Standard Chartered allegations and now this DAX-led
letter highlights how urgent it is to get a final fix to this
dilemma,” Joerg van Essen, deputy chief whip of the Free
Democratic Party that serves as Merkel’s junior coalition
partner, said in a phone interview. “The heat’s on but
lawmakers’ constitutional freedoms are not easily altered.”

The dilemma pits the interests of Germany’s biggest
exporters seeking “corruption-free and fair competition”
abroad against parliamentarians whose freedoms are anchored in
the constitution. About 160 countries have ratified the UN
convention including most Group of 20 states.

Standard Chartered Plc. is fighting to save its license in
the U.S. after a New York regulator said the bank broke U.S.
sanctions in processing $250 billion of proscribed deals with
Iranian banks. In a separate case, a U.S. Senate committee
determined that London-based HSBC gave terrorists, drug cartels
and criminals access to the U.S. financial system.

“Being a signatory to the UN convention does not mean much
unless its principles are upheld,” said Van Essen, a former
state prosecutor.

Parliament’s refusal to sign the convention “hurts German
companies’ reputation” in overseas business and raises the
country’s legal vulnerability, according to the letter dated
June 29, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News.

The letter urges Merkel to pressure lawmakers to accept
stricter anti-bribery rules, which are currently limited to
outlawing the purchase of votes on bills, as a pre-cursor to
Germany signing the convention.